


Protective Peacock

by KageSora



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Peacock Miraculous, miraculous team mom nathalie lmao, not until the end though, peacock nathalie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 02:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10958247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KageSora/pseuds/KageSora
Summary: Nathalie was charged with ensuring Adrien was kept in line and out of trouble.  Of course she would realize his secret.  But her observations reveal more to her, disturbing realities about her employer.  To protect one she has come to view as a sort of son, she acts without thinking for once in her life, and bears the burden to spare her charge further heartbreak.





	Protective Peacock

**Author's Note:**

> It was an idea I was originally just gonna post on tumblr as a "concept: peacock nathalie" blurb but then it got long and I got invested. So. Here you go.
> 
> It's more focused on Nathalie as she puts things together than her as a hero, though.

She Knows. It’s her job to keep him in line, safe, where he needs to be.

Of course she knows about him being Chat Noir. It didn’t take long to figure it out. Gorilla knows too, he couldn’t fail to put it all together--if he did he wouldn’t be worth of his job for doing it so clearly poorly.

They worry for him, fear for his safety and his life each time he goes out to save the city.

They cover for him, protect his secret, she misdirects those who start to sniff out the truth. He lies, takes the blame onto himself for Adrien not being where he should when Nathalie cannot spin a story in time.

Nathalie found Plagg once, saw him watch over Adrien. She swore to keep the secret at any cost, he was too important to put at risk by any knowing she knew. (Gorilla knew first, his watchfulness taking in the little being Adrien would speak to when he thought he was hidden--he would often move himself to ensure that no others could catch sight of the hurried conversations)

They become friends, after a fashion, bonding over concern for Adrien and frustration with his father.

It’s something the Kwami says once about Gabe’s absentee parenting being good since he’s never around during an akuma with few exceptions, makes it easier to keep the secret, that gives her pause.

She goes over his schedule for ages, looking back to that first akuma. She lines things up with the akuma attack times, and beings to paint a grim picture in her mind about the unknown activities of her employer.

She questions Plagg, wondering on the nature of the miraculous, wondering about the being that must give Hawk Moth his power.

Asking, and fearing the answer, what that being eats. For she discovered, much the way she ensures there is always a supply of Camembert for Plagg, that Gabe has discretely been ensuring a specific type of food is available. Delivered to his office with regularity, though it’s not something he had been known to have fondness for.

Her heart growing cold when Plagg confirms her fears.

He asks why. She can’t answer, not just yet, she need a little more time. Something in her demeanor shifts subtly, and the Kwami doesn’t press, for once fearing to know what this human might have discovered.

She waits, and she watches. She observes, and keeps tabs on Gabriel much the way he demands she do of his son--but she is discrete in her spywork.

She sees, just once, a small flash of a light purple entity roughly the size of Plagg zipping out of sight when she entered his office, acting as if she hadn’t been silently listening with ear to door (having arrived several minutes early for a meeting with her employer) and hearing two voices not one within. The exchange had been in hushed tones, clearly not meant for ears other than the ones belonging to those who held it.

That night she asks Plagg again after the butterfly kwami, asking for his color. The answer once more chills her inside.

This time, when the kwami asks, she does not keep her investigations a secret--though she implores that he not share with his charge what he learns this night from her.

“His father is Hawk Moth. He can never know, he has lost one parent already and cannot lose what little sense of family he has left.”

Plagg demands to know how this could be, and she shares what she has learned in full.

The kwami agrees, hating the taste of the secret on his tongue, but he knows the bitterness of watching his kitten destroy himself with guilt should he learn the truth would be far worse.

Nathalie returns to watching and waiting, doing what she can where she can to limit Gabriel’s ability to cause harm with handling his schedule. Her efforts yield minimal effects, but she does what she can all the same.

It was something that began to bother him, though he couldn’t possibly know the truth behind her actions. Still, he was disconcerted, and summoned her to his office to straighten her out, to ensure that his time was free to retrieve the miraculous he sought.

It was her sharp-eyed observation that allowed her to notice the secret behind the painting, the safe.

This all she kept to herself, acting the unknowing innocent who hadn’t realized she was causing minor issues with her boss’s schedule. But she filed that tidbit away, wondering if she could make use of that later.

She knew, of course, that he would be attempting to create another akuma shortly. She cursed her inability to stop it, but she had been unable to locate anything resembling the brooch Plagg had tentatively described to her upon being told of her knowledge of Gabriel’s other activities.

But perhaps this would be where it was kept when he was not making active use of it, and she ensured the security was disabled during the attack--a simple matter considering the nature of the akuma being to cause a blanket-failure of surveillance equipment in the city, something about being sick of always being under scrutiny at their job. She wondered if perhaps this stroke of luck could be attributed to Ladybug in some way.

Especially when the luck held, and it seemed it was general security equipment that wasn’t working correctly, revealing that the safe was unlocked. No brooch was within, of course. She had known that wouldn’t be the case if he were causing the akuma, but she had hoped that if this were where it was stored at other times she might find other things of interest.

The one thing that drew her eye was the brooch that was within--the one that appeared to be themed after a peacock. She had no proof, of course, but something within her whispered that this, too, was a miraculous. Trembling hands reached delicately for it, pulling back a moment later in fear and awe of the sort of power that lay before her.

But if Gabriel possessed two, and sought to possess more, that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Determined hands reach out once more, firmly grasping it, pulling it to her breast. She looks around, closing the safe carefully--once more donning the small cloth gloves she had brought to avoid leaving a trace of herself. The painting was moved back into place, and the brooch pocketed.

She stole away silently, trembling with excitement and terror--what would happen should Gabriel learn the truth? How should she conceal this? Should she inform Plagg? Reveal anything to Adrien?

Her questions were left unanswered as she checked the news, replaced by fear for it seemed the akuma had gotten a true upper hand on the children--their desperate struggles giving lie to the defiant taunts shouted at their adversary. Reading people had always been something she was good with, she needed to be to deal with her employer. The children had the looks about them of those who are in true trouble and afraid that they cannot get out of it this time.

She doesn’t think, for the first time reacting before she plans, donning the brooch. When the kwami within reveals itself to her, her voice is sharp with concern, “How do I transform, and what can I do? The cat and the ladybug need aid.”

The kwami, sensing the distress and determination of this new holder, responds.

And so it is that Hawk Moth is enraged, furious, and frightened to know that someone has entered his office--which cannot be denied when a newcomer themed after a peacock arrives to intervene, allowing the heroic duo to escape and regroup.

Gabriel rages to Nooroo in his lair before retreating upon the defeat of his akuma, missing the way the bird would spirit the pair of established wielders away from the media. And thus couldn’t have noticed his assistant missing from the mansion.

Chat Noir and Ladybug are understandably wary of this newcomer, but she shows naught but concern for their well being, especially that of Chat Noir. She says that she doesn’t know if they will see her again, the donning of the miraculous was an unplanned decision made simply knowing that they required assistance.

When Gabriel returns to his office Nathalie is already back, the miraculous hidden safely away for the moment. He summons her in his fury, but cannot press her without revealing the safe. He weighs this, and decides to present the information to her, demanding that she check the security footage to find who stole from him, though he doesn’t specify what was taken.

She does so, pulling it up before him and praying to any and every higher power that the akuma’s power was thorough--and her prayers are answered, she simply states the obvious to him: “It appears as though the akuma was able to block all security, we have no record of the theft. I would surmise that this was a crime of opportunity by one who realized the ability of the akuma would allow for such a bold crime.”

The police are involved, but the staff all have alibis--for the first time Adrien becoming her cover rather than the other way around, though he never knew.

The thief is never located, but that night a shaken Nathalie reunites a shocked Plagg with a grateful Duusuu, and begins her formal learning of the powers of the Peacock, realizing that she must bear this responsibility alongside the children until she can find a way to put a stop to Gabriel’s doings.

The Peacock gains a reputation as a sort of “Team Mother”, even when the Bee and the Fox arrive. They’re all so young, she thinks, and her investment in them has spread beyond them merely being important to Adrien. She cares about them in their own rights.

It doesn’t take her long to uncover the identities of the rest, a burden that weighs more heavily on her heart than any other--to protect them, none must know that they have been found out. She runs interference for them when she can without being discovered as the source of it, sometimes cursing her attentiveness that granted her the ability to put the pieces together that others seem to have missed.

She is careful to spread her protective nature equally lest some get the idea that she knows Chat Noir.

But she wonders if perhaps that would be such a bad thing, sometimes, late at night.

The harsh light of morning banishes such musings always, and so she resolves to continue as she has each time: to hold this secret close to her heart, to share it with none beyond the two kwami that already know, and to watch over her flock of adopted children to the best of her ability both in and out of costume.


End file.
